Paint Valley is hungry for the regular season with a new coach at the helm
By: Zachary Knight
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CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (WOUB) – As the Paint Valley Bearcats prepare for their upcoming football season, they’ll be adjusting to a new coach at the head of the team.
Former head coach Corey Dye resigned after five years with the Bearcats to take over as the defensive coordinator for Miami Trace, and Paint Valley promoted John Penwell to take over as the new head coach for the 2025 football season.
Penwell was the head coach at fellow SVC school Adena from 2016-2020 and took that team to the playoffs each year from 2018-2020. He then became an assistant coach for the Bearcats in 2021 and served as their defensive coordinator for the 2023-2024 season.
Penwell feels that his experience both as a former coach and defensive coordinator will help the team to succeed this year. For now, him and the team are focused on the basics.
“Defense obviously is huge and I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to stop people if you want to win a game, but football still comes down to the old-fashioned basics of running and tackling and blocking,” Penwell said. “If you can’t run, tackle and block then you’re not going to be a very good football team.”
The team is already buying into Penwell’s philosophy. Players like Gage Wagner feel that he’ll be the right fit to lead this team.
“He makes us put in the work and holds us accountable for what we do. I feel like he’s gonna do pretty good this season with us,” Wagner said.
While the players might be excited to get started, this season will be an uphill battle for the Bearcats. Last year’s team graduated a talented group of seniors, leaving behind a much smaller squad for this year.
Returning players like Preston Fauber aren’t all worried about the smaller size of the team and just feel that if they put in the work, they’ll still be a successful team.
“We’ve got a lot of guys playing both ways. It’s a lot of conditioning and a lot of staying in shape so we’re ready come the fourth quarter and the late weeks,” Fauber said.
Coach Penwell also feels that the smaller team can offer some benefits, “When you have a smaller group you get to know them more on a personal level. They get to bond a little tighter, and we’re doing some team building activities and exercises to really bring that together,” Penwell said.
Last year, Paint Valley finished fourth in the SVC and finished their season with a loss to Purcell Marian in the first round of the playoffs. The Bearcats will have to claw back the top spot of the SVC from the Unioto Shermans, who have claimed the conference title for the last two seasons.
With a new leader and a determined group of players, the Paint Valley Bearcats may be a small but mighty force within the Scioto Valley conference